


I'll love you till the stars die out

by concretebrush



Category: Dominion (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Spoilers for Broken Places, Spoilers for S01Ep03, gabriel loves michael okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-07 12:23:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1898907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concretebrush/pseuds/concretebrush
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What irritated Gabriel the most wasn't the unnatural dark when he was so used to warm, soft, amniotic light. No, it was the fucking stench of decay.</p><p> </p><p>or</p><p>what really happened after Gabriel found out about Michael's brush with death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll love you till the stars die out

 

 

 

 

What irritated Gabriel the most wasn't the unnatural dark when he was so used to warm, soft, amniotic light. No, it was the fucking stench of decay.

Heaven was never this acrid or pungent. His Father wouldn't have stood for it, for this smell of almost death. It was the smell of cowardice, of not even being able to meet death head on. It was the smell of sickness, of sweat and piss. Of fear.

He glanced at the shit-stained stones of the dungeon cell he was currently standing in and wrinkled his nose.

At this gesture of distaste, Furiad told him, with a vague look of amusement in his eyes, “You probably could have found a nicer place.”

Gabriel turned and gave him a _you-idiot-I-am-the-master-here_ look.

He hadn’t chosen this castle for its aerial vistas, although on a good day, he could probably charge people’s firstborns for tours—Gabriel paused and snickered at the thought, those stupid humans—nor for its “coziness” (as if he could ever feel comfortable on this stinking planet), he chose this castle because Gabriel was first and foremost a battle tactician, a warrior. This was simply practical. Nothing more.

“Welcome to Casa de Gabriel. Please make yourself at home...or don’t. I’ll have your head on a stake regardless.”

The acolyte in front of him cowered, mortal bones rattling under mortal flesh. Weak weak weak.

Gabriel curled his upper lip in disgust.

“Get up you filthy human. I don’t have time for your snivelling. Tell me why William sent you to me personally.” William has never done that before, Gabriel’s hatred for humanity, after all, wasn’t exactly a secret.

“Y-yes, master. I, uh, I w-was dr-driving along the r-road outside of V-vega,” when the man paused for breath, Gabriel harshly cut in, “if you don’t stop stuttering, I’m going to kill you right now. The information be damned.”

The mound of limbs and fear on the ground in front of Gabriel twitched slightly and seemed to kneel straighter, Gabriel couldn’t tell.

The human took a steadying breath, “I saw Michael and the Chosen One riding in a jeep away from the city. I didn’t get a very good look but Michael had the end of a sword embedded in his stomach.”

Gabriel’s stomach ran icy with dread. The tips of his fingers tingled with spasms that verged on pain, and a few pinpricks of light danced across the periphery of the dank, time-worn stone cell. His foveal vision was blurring at an alarming rate.

The mortal apparently thought Gabriel’s quiet was an invitation to expound.

“You...ah...you told William to tell you immediately of any news relating to Michael so…” The man gestured to himself with a ‘here I am’ twitch of his hands.

Gabriel ignored him and snarled at Furiad.

“Get out of my sight right now. I already punished you for this, and you may be a valuable warrior, but if I have to look at you any longer, I really will kill you, second time or not.”

Furiad bowed his head and stepped away. If Gabriel didn’t know him, he’d think Furiad was unperturbed. Furiad’s quick steps, though, gave him away.

Gabriel smiled an unamused smile, full of teeth. Good. You should be afraid for your sanity, not to mention your life, if you’ve laid hands on _my_ brother.

He turned back to the human.

“Tell me everything,” he ordered, “where he was, how bad he looked—anything you remember.”

The man shivered and complied.

Before the night was out, those brave or stupid enough to be outside of city limits began reporting a strange whooshing noise, like that of wings, but when they directed lights in the direction of said noise, all they could see was merely a grief-wracked man.

“He looked like he was searching for something,” said one man, trying to tell his skeptical wife of the encounter.

She raised an eyebrow. “What could he possibly hope to find on these God-forsaken roads?”

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

Gabriel could feel his heart pounding in his temples.

The worm had only given him the direction Alex Lannon was driving towards, and a dim description of an...orange jeep? Fucking useless.

The road Lannon was taking split off into three other roads. And at this point, so long after the human first sighted the two, they could be far down any one of them.

Orange jeeps were about as rare as lower angels. That’s to say, not rare at all.

For several hours, he had been flying above the highway looking for orange jeeps, and when he had sighted one, he’d land to determine if this one would finally be the one to hold his brother.

Angels, especially the higher ones, and archangels specifically, were much more durable than humans. Most wounds lethal to men (of which there were many) would pose little problem for Michael. That did not, however, mean he was invincible. Only God could be thus characterized, and as He was currently M.I.A., a deus ex machina, taken literally, would be impossible.

Gabriel clenched his teeth and his hands.

The night spiraled out from him in dizzying shades of dark.

His brother and he may not agree all the time...or even most of the time, but they were still _brothers_. And Gabriel had spent countless millennia loving Michael.

God had created angels with the strongest sense of loyalty of all creation, dogs perhaps being the only exception.

This didn’t mean disloyalty was impossible in angels, Lucifer being a prime example, but it was difficult.

True betrayal of someone to whom you used to be loyal to caused in higher angels, not only the mental anguish found in humans, but also a physical, crippling, heart-pain.

Gabriel was not a model angel. He had felt this heart-pain many times over the course of his interminable life, but never once had it been with regards to Michael. Nor, he promised himself somewhere in year two million sixty-eight, would it ever be felt in regards to Michael.

They might be fighting for opposite things, but ultimately, Gabriel would always be fighting for Michael.

Michael who has sunk down to living with the humans, standing guard for the rulers as if he was a common foot soldier.

They had once said we held the clouds in our hands, Michael. They hadn't always hated us so fiercely.

Once we were almost gods to them.

This destruction of mankind will show you just what is wrong with humanity, and perhaps then we could be a family again.

Perhaps then, Father would want to come back.

If we were all just a little bit better.

Gabriel is fighting for _you_ , little brother, don’t you know?

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If this is blasphemy in any way, Lord forgive me my sins.  
> Gabriel's reaction to Furiad's attack on Michael was so heart-wrenching. He loves his bro okay, no matter what shitty things he decides to do.  
> The "clouds in our hands" reference is from something Auriolus said in the 8th/9th century about the archangels. I shamelessly took it from wikipedia.  
> Also sorry if any of the details are wrong. I liberally made stuff up so...this might be slightly AU-ish in tone/characterization etc.


End file.
